Chapter 12

1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.⁠ 2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. 4 For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, 5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. 6 And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; 8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness. 9 Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.⁠ 10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.⁠ 14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people.⁠ 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,”⁠ says the Lord.⁠ 20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.⁠ 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Philo, The Special Laws 1:277 and Romans 12:1

Classical · New Testament

Summary

Philo of Alexandria writes that God does not value the number of sacrifices but the purity of the petitioner’s rational spirit. In Romans, Paul uses similar reasoning, calling believers to present themselves as a living sacrifice.

Passages

Philo, The Special Laws 1:277

Classical

277 And this command symbolizes nothing other than the fact that in the eyes of God what is valued is not the number of things sacrificed, but the purity of the rational spirit of the sacrificer. Unless, indeed, one can suppose that a judge who is anxious to pronounce a holy judgment will never receive gifts from any of those whose conduct comes before his tribunal, or that, if he does receive such presents, he will be liable to an accusation of corruption; and that a good man will not receive gifts from a wicked person, not even if he is poor and the other rich, and he himself perhaps actually needs what he would receive; and yet that God can be corrupted by bribes, God who is wholly sufficient for himself and has no need of anything created, and who, being himself the first and most perfect good thing, the everlasting fountain of wisdom, and justice, and of every virtue, rejects the gifts of the wicked.

20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philo, The Special Laws

Romans 12:1

New Testament

1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. 2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.

55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

“... Philo writes in his explanation of the incense offering which precedes the bloody animal sacrifice, ‘This symbolical meaning is just this and nothing else: that what is precious in the sight of God is not the number of victims immolated but the true purity of a rational spirit (πνεῦμα λογικόν) in him who makes the sacrifice’ (Special Laws 1.277; translation F. H. Colson, Loeb Classical Library). Since God is more interested in the ‘rational spirit’ than in the animal sacrifice, he is less interested in the perfection of the sacrificial animal than in the question whether the person’s ‘own mind (διάνοια) stands free from defect and imperfection’ (Special Laws 1.283). Philo concludes, ‘And thus we have the clearest proof that he holds the sacrifice to consist not in the victims but in the offerer’s intention and his zeal which derives its constancy and permanence from virtue’ (Special Laws 1.290). Philo’s interpretation shows that Stoic notions of ‘rational’ sacrifice had been taken up by Jewish authors who agreed with the contrast between true sacrifices and true worship on the one hand and material animal sacrifice on the other ...”

Eckhard J. Schnabel, “Lives that Speak,” in The Earliest Perceptions of Jesus in Context: Essays in Honour of John Nolland on His 70th Birthday, ed. Craig A. Evans Aaron W. White and David Wenham, LNTS 566 (London: T&T Clark, 2018), 286.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Romans16 chapters

Compare Philo, The Special Laws 1:277 and Romans 12:1

Summary

Passages

Philo, The Special Laws 1:277

Romans 12:1

References

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